Sensing her advantage, Taiba put her hands to the throat of the rough gray dress Polgara had given her. “I can stop you, Relg,” she told him. She began unfastening the dress. “Watch me. You look at me all the time anyway—I’ve seen you with your hot eyes on me. You call me names and say that I’m wicked, but still you watch. Look then. Don’t try to hide it.” She continued to unfasten the front of the dress. “If you’re free of sin, my body shouldn’t bother you at all.”

Relg’s eyes were bulging now.

“My body doesn’t bother me, but it bothers you very much, doesn’t it? But is the wickedness in my mind or yours?”

“The horses could use some rest, too,” Hettar said. “They’re starting to complain.”

“You should have told me,” Wolf said, glancing back at the pack train.

“They’re not really in bad shape yet,” Hettar informed him, “but they’re starting to feel sorry for themselves. They’re exaggerating of course, but a little rest wouldn’t hurt them.”

“Exaggerating?” Silk sounded shocked. “You don’t mean to say that horses can actually lie, do you?”

Hettar shrugged. “Of course. They lie all the time. They’re very good at it.”

For a moment Silk looked outraged at the thought, and then he suddenly laughed. “Somehow that restores my faith in the order of the universe,” he declared.